What worked and what failed this year, and some advice for Pebble lovers everywhere.

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2016 was a year of looking inward for most companies making wearables. Big names like Fitbit and Garmin released a handful of totally new products, but most companies focused on making improvements to their existing products. While refinements are not as exciting as brand-new product debuts can be, they show us the direction in which fitness trackers are moving.

This time last year, the open question was if smartwatches and all-purpose devices like the Apple Watch would kill fitness-only devices like those made by Fitbit. Thanks to developments made this year, we can say that both categories will likely survive—mostly because the consumer wearable landscape has expanded to encompass a few distinct categories: the "move more" devices, the serious training devices, and the all-purpose smartwatches. Most of the second- and even third-generation products that came out this year fit into these categories, and there are obvious hits and misses.

We're going to examine each category and where it went in 2016 and then tell you our picks for best and worst device in each—along with our predictions for 2017 and beyond. If you've been waiting for the holiday to pick up a fitness tracker or fancy smart watch, now might be the time!

Move more, live more

The "move more" trackers are what most people buy for their friends or relatives as holiday gifts. They're trackers that are meant to live on your wrist all day to make you more aware of all that time you spend in your office chair. They all focus on tracking the trifecta: steps, calories, and distance. But many can also monitor sleep, stairs climbed, and inactive time and track some basic workout information. Since their features are more limited than the other trackers we'll get into, there's not a huge learning curve preventing even the least tech-savvy wearers from using them. However, they're also the types of trackers most likely to be abandoned after a few months of use.

Video shot/edited by Jennifer Hahn.

Quite a few companies make great move-more trackers. Fitbit is the most obvious, and its newest device in the category is the $129 Alta. We didn't review the Alta, but we did review other great trackers including the $99 Misfit Ray. The Alta and the Ray are meant for the same kind of person: someone who wants a tap on the wrist to remind them to be more active throughout the day and someone who doesn't want to look like they're wearing a fitness tracker. The Alta's only perk in comparison to the Ray is its tappable display that can show the time and some activity stats, which will be useful if you like that instant gratification of knowing your step count on a whim. But the Ray ups the ante by tracking swimming and using Misfit's Link system to control smart lights and music. It can also act as a shutter for your smartphone's camera.

Further Reading

Both Fitbit's and Misfit's devices (not just the Alta and the Ray, respectively, but others as well) can be classed as "fashionable" wearables, as can many of the other move-more trackers. One of the biggest reasons for this is that most of these devices are simple—they're not meant to have onboard GPS, a heart rate monitor, or other complex sensors—so manufacturers can take the tech needed for a simple tracker and develop more ways to dress it up.

Misfit has been doing this for a long time, starting with the bracelet and necklace accessories for its Shine tracker, then its Shine-Swarovski collaboration, and now the Phase hybrid watch that barely looks like a smart device. Misfit's parent company, Fossil, is also doing this across nearly all of its brands, but it started by making some basic smartwatches that track steps, calories, and distance for Fossil's own line of watches. That was a year ago, and now nearly half of Fossil watches are hybrids, and many of its brands (Diesel, Emporio Armani, and more) have hybrids in their watch families.

I can happily say that none of the basic trackers I tried this year were bad. All of them track steps, calories, and distance fairly well. The bad parts come when you examine their value for money compared to similar devices. For example, Withings' $80 Go tracker has most of the features the Misfit Ray has, but it lacks a vibration motor (meaning it can't send reminders and alerts to your wrist), and it's not particularly fashion-forward. The Go is only for those who want a very bare-bones tracker; for all others, something like the Ray is a better value.

Serious devices for serious fitness buffs

A previous misconception about fitness trackers was that they were only for people who wanted to get off the couch and get back into shape and that their value significantly decreased if you were already active. That's not really true anymore, and many companies make devices that are meant for serious training rather than just step counting. There are different levels of these "serious business" trackers, and levels typically depend on the built-in advanced sensors they have. The two most popular ones are built-in GPS and optical heart rate monitoring, and the former is still more of a serious feature than the latter. Some trackers toe the line in between move-more and serious devices by having built-in heart rate monitoring, like Fitbit's $150 Charge 2.

But the best serious tracker to come out this year is Garmin's $250 Vivoactive HR. That's not because it's the most expensive or the most advanced device you can get. Garmin, Polar, and other companies make very high-end trackers costing over $300 that do more than the Vivoactive HR with features like GLONASS satellite reception, VO2 max estimates, onboard altimeters and barometers, to name a few.

Video shot/edited by Jennifer Hahn.

What Garmin did with the Vivoactive HR is make many of the most desired fitness tracker features available in a solid device that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. With onboard GPS and Garmin's own heart rate monitoring technology, the Vivoactive HR tracks a plethora of workout activities, including swimming; it also keeps tabs on your daily activity and sends smartphone notifications to your wrist. Our big issues with it were its design—anyone who knows what a fitness tracker is will be able to tell what's on your wrist when you wear it—and the convoluted nature of its Garmin Connect companion app. We would love to see Garmin fine-tune its Connect app to make the user experience better. If it did so, Garmin's hardware lineup and software ecosystem would be hard to beat.

Garmin does a good job of making serious training devices, but it's not the only fish in the serious business pond. There's the $99 Lumo Run, a small sensor that attaches to the waistband of your pants to monitor running form. This device won't be good for anyone who wants to track daily movement, or even an athlete who's training for a triathlon. Instead, Lumo Run helps you run better by tracking your form and suggesting ways to improve in real-time using an audio coach within its companion app. More devices like Lumo Run are coming out, and it proves that you don't have to have a tracker that monitors every activity under the sun to get a device that's hardcore enough to help you get to the next level in your training.

In that same vein, some serious trackers try too hard to incorporate as many features as possible. Polar's $329 M600 is an example of this—it takes most of Polar's typical tracker features, which are quite good, and marries them with Android Wear. This made the M600 a confusing mix of fitness tracker and smartwatch that is ultimately unsuccessful. First, it only works well with Android phones, thanks to the limitations of Google's wearable OS and Apple's restrictions on third-party apps. It's also too bulky to wear all day long if you want to track daily activity in addition to workouts. While it is a true example of an all-in-one kind of device, it's not the best that it could be—especially considering many of Polar's other devices have a few smartwatch features, done Polar's way and not Google's way.

Anything and everything

Finally, there are the devices that try to do everything you'd want a wearable to do. Even though the overall "wearable" class of devices is still new and without a clear leading direction, some devices are trying to prove the potential of wearables beyond fitness. The best example of this is the Apple Watch, although Apple did follow the crowd a bit with its Series 2 revision.

Video shot/edited by Jennifer Hahn.

When the Watch came out about a year-and-a-half ago, Apple pushed all the features it had that weren't fitness-related as ways the watch could improve your quality of life and help you get off your phone more. The Apple Watch does succeed in doing that, thanks to its rich smartphone notifications and the ease with which you can actually do useful things from the device. Typically with wearable notifications, you can't do more than glance at them to see what they have to say. Since the Apple Watch came out, Apple has done a good job making the Watch a more interactive device, allowing users to text in multiple ways from the Watch, control smart home devices, and use mini-versions of full iOS apps from its display. Of course, all these things apply only if you have an iPhone—the Watch won't work with an Android device.

Further Reading

But with the $375 Series 2, Apple made a conscious decision to focus on fitness more without getting rid of any of the core smartwatch features. The Series 2 has an onboard GPS for outdoor workout mapping, an accurate optical heart rate monitor, and the device is swim-proof with its unique mechanism for ejecting water that might get into the Watch's speakers. I predict we'll see more trackers of all kinds becoming waterproof enough to track swimming, and the way the Apple Watch does so is refreshing and different.

It was also nice to see an Android OEM come out with something nearly as good as the Apple Watch for Google's mobile OS. Samsung's $179 Gear Fit 2 packages the most important smartwatch features and hardcore fitness features into one device. Since the Gear Fit 2 only works on Android devices, it's arguably the best alternative to the Apple Watch for Android users. The main outstanding issue shared by both the Gear Fit 2 and the Apple Watch is the battery life: neither of them last more than two days on a single charge. That's a sacrifice you currently have to make when these wearables are doing so much all the time. In comparison, plain activity trackers both basic and serious typically last anywhere between five days to a few weeks on a charge (and lightweight fashionable trackers like the Misfit Ray can go for a month or more). That's one area that will have to improve in order for more people to invest in all-purpose wearables—when you're spending hundreds of dollars on an accessory that you wear all day long, it should at least be able to last more than a couple days before you need to charge it again.

The one product that came out this year and didn't totally live up to expectations was Fitbit's $200 Blaze fitness watch. We didn't come away from the review thinking the Blaze was a bad device, but it occupies a space in Fitbit's lineup and the smartwatch world in general that seems unnecessary. The only smartwatch features it has are notifications (and not all of them, either—just call, text, and calendar alerts) and music control. It did take a page from Microsoft's book with FitStar guided workouts, which let you follow moving icons on the display to do a full workout routine comprising different exercises. Otherwise, as a fitness tracker, it could be considered a mid- to high-end device since it has an onboard heart rate monitor but can only use GPS via a connected smartphone. The Blaze's design is also an issue, mostly because you need to remove the module from its strange metal case to charge it with a bulky proprietary cable. This was the first obvious attempt by Fitbit to compete with the Apple Watch, and it definitely fell short.

Looking forward in 2017

We will likely see Fitbit try again to create a solid Apple Watch competitor next year. The news of the company's $40 million Pebble acquisition points to Fitbit's desire to incorporate more smartwatch features into its traditionally fitness-based products. The lukewarm reception to the Blaze may have prompted Fitbit to reconsider its expertise in making a true smartwatch—Pebble ostensibly knows how to do this and do it well enough to have a big fanbase that supported it through the years with crowdfunding. Pebble's Timeline interface on its newest watches is a totally different way of separating information from the UI on Fitbit trackers, and it's also quite different from the Apple Watch's UI. We'll likely see Fitbit put its spin on Pebble's smartwatch interface in new products.

Further Reading

The acquisition of Pebble is one of the biggest stories in the wearable world this year. No matter how you feel about its products, Pebble was the first company to make a modern smartwatch that its customers enthusiastically embraced, and the company's crowdfunding campaigns set records. Now, Pebble won't be making any more products (that means we'll never see its Core running module—unless Fitbit does something with it) and it's ceasing support for existing watches. Anyone who has a Pebble will still be able to use it, but support has been cut off, and Pebble has already said that functionality may be reduced in the coming months.

It's tough to recommend a similar device for anyone looking to get a different smartwatch, simply because most other smartwatches are not like Pebble devices at all. Even the Apple Watch is more limited in some ways, since the Apple Watch is only useful for those with iPhones, and Pebble's devices worked with Android and iOS. There's also the issue of battery life: most of Pebble's watches last a week on a single charge, and some of them could run for 10 days. Unless you opt for a simple tracker that runs on a coin-cell battery (which lasts for about six months), you're not going to get battery life like that on any smartwatch. If we had to recommend an alternative for Pebble enthusiasts, we'd say Garmin's $219 Vivoactive is arguably the company's best marriage of looks, UI, and fitness prowess, and the $269 Apple Watch Series 1 is another good option if you can live without a waterproof design or onboard GPS.

Along with Fitbit, we think wearable companies will lean toward opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of smartwatches. According to a recent report from IDC, consumers are embracing "basic" fitness trackers more than smartwatches, due to the basic devices' simplicity. But a device doesn't have to take the form of a generic wristband to be a basic activity tracker. We'll likely see companies take the Fossil route—incorporating basic activity tracking into stylish devices—or the Apple route, which is undoubtably the harder of the two options. Fitness remains the most practical use for these devices, and most wearables we know today are fitness trackers in some sense. The companies that try to make true smartwatches will have to define the purpose of those devices, and what will be even more difficult is getting customers to buy into the need of that device.

Apple did what Apple does best with the Series 2 Watch: it helped normalize smartwatches and showed they could be both general connected devices as well as good fitness trackers. More people know what smartwatches are thanks to the original Watch and the Series 2, but the devices' necessity is still ambiguous. While you can more easily justify spending $150 on a Fitbit Charge 2 in the hopes of getting fit in the new year, it's harder (but now, not impossible) to make the case for a $375 Apple Watch that you're not sure how you'll most use it aside from tracking workouts. The electronic boat anchor of the tethered smartphone still holds the category back; a true standalone smartwatch that does everything without a smartphone doesn't yet exist.

Further Reading

Also in the new year, we'll likely see more wearables moving off your wrist. This has been happening slowly for the past year or two, with prime examples being Sensoria's smart clothing and Under Armour's run-tracking sneakers. Moov has already debuted Moov HR, which places a heart rate monitor in a headband or swim cap. This change depends on two things: the size of the sensors used to track movement and the creativity of companies using them to make products that look and feel natural. The wrist was the perfect part of the body for wearables to start with simply because it feels natural to wear something bracelet-like or watch-like all day. But the wrist won't be the only place for wearable technology to live, especially when there are better areas of the body to track things like heart rate, breathing rate, pace, and more.

In fact, we'll likely see more trackers come in the form of one of the first wearable technologies: earbuds. Audio companies are starting to embrace the idea of putting accelerometers and heart rate monitors in their earbuds, and ideally it would be a highly practical combo. Most people listen to music while exercising, so a reliable earbud-based monitor could eliminate the need for a music maker and a fitness tracker. We reviewed a bunch of the heart-rate toting earbuds on the market now, and the good news is that some of them are fairly accurate in detecting heart rate. It's still a hit-or-miss market for now, but 2017 could usher in some even better, second-generation fitness buds that could go toe-to-toe with your favorite wristband.

Overall, 2016 wasn't a year where we saw anything incredibly new or eye-catching in the combined wearable space. But we did see a lot of big companies come into their own, refining products and making some features more ubiquitous. Hopefully 2017 will bring some all-new devices, particularly some that don't live on your wrist. We're optimistic that we could see new companies with unique wearable ideas in the coming year, but they always have the hardest job of all—similar to the struggle that Apple and other smartwatch makers are faced with. They must prove necessity, rather than relying on intrigue, to convince consumers to give their devices a shot. At the very least, we'll see companies trying to figure out how each of their products fits into the current wearable categories that are more likely to stick around.

60 Reader Comments

What about chinese full-featured smartphones? I've had around 12 smartwatches (from Pebble to Sony to Samsung) and now I bought a very inexpensive one (74.99 on GearBest) called "Finow Q1". It has Android 5.1, 1.54 inch Oled screen, an MTK6580 1.3GHz Quad Core, 1GB RAM and 8GB ROM, Pedometer, Gravity Sensor, GPS, WIFI and Heart Rate Monitor. I must say that after all the money I've spent on the previous (12!) Smartwatches, this one is really not a bad option. Once I even drop it on a pool and survived (it's not waterproof). Maybe Ars could do a review on the inexpensive kind.

I've been tracking activities using various methods since around 2000, when I picked up a bike cyclometer that had a heart rate monitor built in. I then added a GPS. Later I started using a Garmin Forerunner 201 and even later the Nokia SportsTracker app. Now I use an iPhone 7 and Apple Watch, along with Wahoo Fitness bike and HRM sensors.

One very disturbing trend to me is the sandboxing of workout data. I went from tracking my activity in a spreadsheet to having 4 different apps that don't necessarily talk to each other (Wahoo Fitness, Strava, a skiing tracker, and the Apple workout app). Apple's app is a black hole. In fact despite all the hype over continuity, there's no way to get healthkit data off my phone. But none of the other apps are any better. They all keep your data on their servers and have limited export functions. This is completely unacceptable. Not because of privacy, but because there is no "one best way" to track activity. Maybe I want to analyze my workouts using a modified candlestick chart. Sorry Strava's fine programmers don't think that way.

Is it a big problem? Not really, but I know some pretty serious runners who would be devastated if their tracker of choice were to go out of business and take their training logs with them.

I've been tracking activities using various methods since around 2000, when I picked up a bike cyclometer that had a heart rate monitor built in. I then added a GPS. Later I started using a Garmin Forerunner 201 and even later the Nokia SportsTracker app. Now I use an iPhone 7 and Apple Watch, along with Wahoo Fitness bike and HRM sensors.

One very disturbing trend to me is the sandboxing of workout data. I went from tracking my activity in a spreadsheet to having 4 different apps that don't necessarily talk to each other (Wahoo Fitness, Strava, a skiing tracker, and the Apple workout app). Apple's app is a black hole. In fact despite all the hype over continuity, there's no way to get healthkit data off my phone. But none of the other apps are any better. They all keep your data on their servers and have limited export functions. This is completely unacceptable. Not because of privacy, but because there is no "one best way" to track activity. Maybe I want to analyze my workouts using a modified candlestick chart. Sorry Strava's fine programmers don't think that way.

Is it a big problem? Not really, but I know some pretty serious runners who would be devastated if their tracker of choice were to go out of business and take their training logs with them.

I've been tracking activities using various methods since around 2000, when I picked up a bike cyclometer that had a heart rate monitor built in. I then added a GPS. Later I started using a Garmin Forerunner 201 and even later the Nokia SportsTracker app. Now I use an iPhone 7 and Apple Watch, along with Wahoo Fitness bike and HRM sensors.

One very disturbing trend to me is the sandboxing of workout data. I went from tracking my activity in a spreadsheet to having 4 different apps that don't necessarily talk to each other (Wahoo Fitness, Strava, a skiing tracker, and the Apple workout app). Apple's app is a black hole. In fact despite all the hype over continuity, there's no way to get healthkit data off my phone. But none of the other apps are any better. They all keep your data on their servers and have limited export functions. This is completely unacceptable. Not because of privacy, but because there is no "one best way" to track activity. Maybe I want to analyze my workouts using a modified candlestick chart. Sorry Strava's fine programmers don't think that way.

Is it a big problem? Not really, but I know some pretty serious runners who would be devastated if their tracker of choice were to go out of business and take their training logs with them.

True you can get a data dump .xml file. But I can just copy/paste just about any other data with the universal clipboard, push data around with Airdrop, and Safari's tabs show up on all my devices. There's no health or activity app on my iPad nor on my MacBook. I know I'm contradicting myself when I say I want an app on my mac that will let me view data, but I'm more interested in having a decent sized screen for analysis than I am in custom charting (which would be great too).

Still nothing close to the pebble. I feel like if they'd just tried harder with the round (maybe a gen2 with decent battery?) and spent more than 3¢ on advertising they would've done really well. I guess I'll just use my round til it dies and then go back to being watchless.

I don't want a phone on my wrist. I want a watch. It'd be nice for the watch to connect to my phone and maybe give me notifications, but it's gotta function as a basic watch. Always on screen, and no nightly charging. None of the big brands seem interested in delivering an actual smartWATCH; they all seem dead set on fitting a cell phone on your wrist.

I don't know why you consider the tethered smartphone to be an "electronic boat anchor". For me, it's the number one feature of my Pebble 2. I get all my notifications on my wrist, and can see at a glance whether it's something I need to respond to immediately, when I get a chance, or not at all. Canned replies handle about 3/4 of my texts, and I can read and respond without taking my eyes off the road (I know some will get up in arms about this, but it's no more distracting than checking my speedometer or changing the radio station).

Plus, I can take advantage of Android's smart lock, while still keeping my phone reasonably secure. The Pebble apps provide all kinds of additional features (Notification Centre is brilliant, and works around so many Android app stupid notifications). The heart rate monitor, sleep tracking, etc are just bonuses for me.

Overall a good article, however I do have to quibble with one of the assertions around the Fitbit Blaze. While, when it came out, it only supported basic notifications, a recent software update allows for all many more types of notifications. My wife's Blaze currently displays Google Hangouts, Instagram and other apps (Android-based phone, FWIW) in addition to call and SMS notifications.

1) Still looking for the average interval between charging to be more than EVERY SINGLE DAY.

2) Let's emphasize performance over features. Features don't matter if they work slowly.

Are you talking about smartphone peripherals like the one Apple makes, or fitness trackers?

I've a charge 2 and plug it in probably once or twice a week. I'll grant that I have to poke it a few times to get it to track specific things, but for the most part I don't ever look at it except to find out what time it is.

I may be part of a small minority, but I just want a no-frills smartwatch like Pebble used to be: just notifications and some simple information like weather and calendar, and definitely NO fitness stuff. Even Pebble was moving in the wrong direction for me, focusing more and more on health, dedicating an entire button to it.Oh well, my Pebble Time Steel is still close to my ideal smartwatch. Let's hope it keeps running for a long time...

I've been tracking activities using various methods since around 2000, when I picked up a bike cyclometer that had a heart rate monitor built in. I then added a GPS. Later I started using a Garmin Forerunner 201 and even later the Nokia SportsTracker app. Now I use an iPhone 7 and Apple Watch, along with Wahoo Fitness bike and HRM sensors.

One very disturbing trend to me is the sandboxing of workout data. I went from tracking my activity in a spreadsheet to having 4 different apps that don't necessarily talk to each other (Wahoo Fitness, Strava, a skiing tracker, and the Apple workout app). Apple's app is a black hole. In fact despite all the hype over continuity, there's no way to get healthkit data off my phone. But none of the other apps are any better. They all keep your data on their servers and have limited export functions. This is completely unacceptable. Not because of privacy, but because there is no "one best way" to track activity. Maybe I want to analyze my workouts using a modified candlestick chart. Sorry Strava's fine programmers don't think that way.

Is it a big problem? Not really, but I know some pretty serious runners who would be devastated if their tracker of choice were to go out of business and take their training logs with them.

True you can get a data dump .xml file. But I can just copy/paste just about any other data with the universal clipboard, push data around with Airdrop, and Safari's tabs show up on all my devices. There's no health or activity app on my iPad nor on my MacBook. I know I'm contradicting myself when I say I want an app on my mac that will let me view data, but I'm more interested in having a decent sized screen for analysis than I am in custom charting (which would be great too).

My point is, don't make my data hard to get.

Did you not just say you went from tracking your fitness data in a spreadsheet to having no way to export the data off your phone?

Export the data and pull it into your spreadsheet.

Sure, spreadsheets have been around forever, but CSV files and the newer XML files have always been the standard way you move data between spreadsheets and databases coded by different programmers with different ways of handling that data internally.

You can cut and paste data within the same database/spreadsheet, but there isn't a standard clipboard format that works with any vendor's product that I've ever heard of.

Also worth considering is that pebbles are still working (for now). FitBit needs tonkeep the ecosystem alive to win over the developers, and enough open source stuff exists to keep them running usefully for years.

This ought to give enough time for an Apple Watch with an always-on watchface mode, that also finally works with iPads, and have almost twice the Series2 battery life.

Overall a good article, however I do have to quibble with one of the assertions around the Fitbit Blaze. While, when it came out, it only supported basic notifications, a recent software update allows for all many more types of notifications. My wife's Blaze currently displays Google Hangouts, Instagram and other apps (Android-based phone, FWIW) in addition to call and SMS notifications.

Same. I have a Fitbit Blaze and I get my app notifications on it (iOS). It's actually quite nice, because Fitbit lets you select which apps you want to let push notifications to your Blaze, so I only get the ones I really care about.

I'm not sure I agree with the author that heart rate tracking is an advanced fitness feature either. My mom loves her Fitbit's HR tracking and got a larger wearable over a slimmer one to have HR, and she is definitely in the most casual "move more" segment. I would bucket HR, and also sleep, into that basic category. She and her friends love those features, and that is generally my experience when talking to people who have them but aren't fitness buffs.

Anyone bringing up the Pebble 2 HR....please. I have owned every Pebble made, including the Pebble 2 HR but with FITBIT shutting them down, even though they promise to keep most functions in the cloud working for a year...I still passed it along to my daughter. Plus I was counting on being able to add GPS function to it via the Pebble Core, but of course that won't happen.

So, I went and bought the Garmin Vivoactive HR since I have used Garmin for my training on bike/run/swim for years (via the 910XT as of late). The Vivoactive HR has great battery life ala Pebble, such that you don't have to plug it in everyday....and you missed complaining about more costly watches having GLONASS gps, becuz it DOES. It gives you the option to choose it in each exercise App. Plus it can sync to all my previous Garmin sensors like footpod, bike/speed cadence and the like.

Been stressing over an upgrade after having it since June, but decided against anything new. Amazfit Pace came close, esp at the $99 price point, but ultimately passed. Pebble 2 was interesting but klunky design.

The Mi Band 2 has a small profile, light, 20-30 day battery life. I don't even have to think about it. It shows me the time, step count for relative activity (it's all relative since they're wildly inaccurate), and notifications when I get calls or texts. I don't need all the other integrations.

The other thing is that there had been at least 6 firmware updates since I got it, each adding functionality. Text notifications went from a flag to adding the name of the sender. Time added a date display option. Neat.

I may be part of a small minority, but I just want a no-frills smartwatch like Pebble used to be: just notifications and some simple information like weather and calendar, and definitely NO fitness stuff. Even Pebble was moving in the wrong direction for me, focusing more and more on health, dedicating an entire button to it.Oh well, my Pebble Time Steel is still close to my ideal smartwatch. Let's hope it keeps running for a long time...

Probably not. Depending on how you look at it, I've been even more lazy and not bothered with ANY high tech watch... I still use a classic, analog wristwatch. It's definitely been useful, as I use it to tell time, stopwatch (noting start and end times), and the date... all without having to whip out the phone/PDA. I miss backlighting and an actual stop watch from digital watches, but eh... EXCELLENT battery life

1) Still looking for the average interval between charging to be more than EVERY SINGLE DAY.

2) Let's emphasize performance over features. Features don't matter if they work slowly.

Are you talking about smartphone peripherals like the one Apple makes, or fitness trackers?

I've a charge 2 and plug it in probably once or twice a week. I'll grant that I have to poke it a few times to get it to track specific things, but for the most part I don't ever look at it except to find out what time it is.

Mostly smart watch/fitness trackers such as MS band 2 and apple. Let the battery capacity catch up for a while before more bells and whistles.

Same. I had my Mi Band 2 shipped for $23.71 (albeit with annoyingly slow overseas shipping).I would not have even considered paying $100 for some of the options listed above, much less two, three, or four hundred. But at less than twenty-five bucks, you're talking about a *much* more accessible and mainstream product. I didn't even particularly want a wearable, but for that low cost of entry I was willing to give the concept a try.

I've gotten ~2 weeks of battery life the last couple of charges. After the first couple of days I've forgotten about it. It mostly just works. And at that price, I'm not concerned at all about accidentally breaking multiple hundreds of dollars on my wrist.

How is the Apple iWatch a best in group product? It can't do sleep tracking, it has less than a days battery life. The FitBit Blaze has more essential movement tracking features than the iWatch, yet it is the worst... WTH

Sure the iWatch looks nice, but it's lipstick on a pig.

EDIT: Glad to see the iCrowd chime in... they need the help to feel better for overspending for an incomplete tracker.

Overall a good article, however I do have to quibble with one of the assertions around the Fitbit Blaze. While, when it came out, it only supported basic notifications, a recent software update allows for all many more types of notifications. My wife's Blaze currently displays Google Hangouts, Instagram and other apps (Android-based phone, FWIW) in addition to call and SMS notifications.

Same. I have a Fitbit Blaze and I get my app notifications on it (iOS). It's actually quite nice, because Fitbit lets you select which apps you want to let push notifications to your Blaze, so I only get the ones I really care about.

I'm not sure I agree with the author that heart rate tracking is an advanced fitness feature either. My mom loves her Fitbit's HR tracking and got a larger wearable over a slimmer one to have HR, and she is definitely in the most casual "move more" segment. I would bucket HR, and also sleep, into that basic category. She and her friends love those features, and that is generally my experience when talking to people who have them but aren't fitness buffs.

When I first started looking at activity trackers I was of the opinion that the HR function was just an unnecessary gimmick that wasn't all that accurate anyway. But I was trying to find one for my wife, and the Charge 2 ended up having the best mix of features and form for her, and it came with HR tracking anyway, so now she has that. After seeing it in action I realized that even without being all that accurate, it can still be pretty useful by giving you a log of "active minutes." I'm not sure, but I've assumed that Fitbit figures this out by tracking your heart rate and it doesn't need to be all that accurate to tell the difference between sedentary and moving. I'd much rather shoot for a minimum of 20-30 minutes active time a day than 10,000 steps.

Overall a good article, however I do have to quibble with one of the assertions around the Fitbit Blaze. While, when it came out, it only supported basic notifications, a recent software update allows for all many more types of notifications. My wife's Blaze currently displays Google Hangouts, Instagram and other apps (Android-based phone, FWIW) in addition to call and SMS notifications.

I have a Blaze for a few reasons. I was already in the Fitbit ecosystem with previous trackers of theirs, and I wanted to keep my data and be able to compare my progress with other friends I have with Fitbit trackers. I also have tried other trackers and smartwatches but either they were great but didn't integrate with my existing Fitbit data (surprisingly, a big deal), or not that great as fitness trackers so I'd wear it for notifcations and a Fitbit for my fitness tracking, which isn't ideal.

Call, text, and app notifications were the big missing piece for me with my previous Fitbit trackers. With the Charge HR, I could only get calls. The Surge could do only calls and text, but also had music control (which I find useful). I do a lot more aside from calls and texts that I'd like notifications for. I got the Blaze after they had released the update allowing for notifications pushed from any app that provides them. It doesn't have Cortana integration like the MS Band 2 did (which unfortunately would fall apart within months), but I can deal with that. I find it to be a good middle ground or compromise, right under the Surge. It is more casual and stylish than the Surge, and allows for more types of notifications. The only thing you don't get is GPS, but if you have your phone with you, it can link up with that for GPS tracking when out on walks or runs. So, in practice, it actually is more of a deal than the Surge is, in my opinion.

So I'm approaching this from a different angle. Is there a small standalone device that can hold a decent amount of music (8gb+), does basic step tracking, and supports Bluetooth headphones? That's all I want from a jogging wearable since my 7 year old iPod nano died, but the best option I've found on amazon is...a slightly newer (but still old) iPod nano? Sony had some headphones that might of worked, but they were discontinued. I hate dragging my giant phone with me, and I'm paranoid about it breaking, but I guess that's what everyone does these days?

I was under the impression that the Garmin Vivoactive HR has GLONASS and a barometric altimeter. Maybe there's a typo in the piece?Most importantly it has ANT+ support, so you can use a real chest HR sensor and cadence and speed cycling sensors with the Vivoactive HR. Hoping to get mine in a week.

1) Still looking for the average interval between charging to be more than EVERY SINGLE DAY.

2) Let's emphasize performance over features. Features don't matter if they work slowly.

Can't speak for other watches but my Vivoactive HR lasts a week when not using GPS, when using GPS daily for 1-2 hours he watch will last 3 days. This was the single best feature for me about this watch (plus all other benefits highlighted in the article)

Overall a good article, however I do have to quibble with one of the assertions around the Fitbit Blaze. While, when it came out, it only supported basic notifications, a recent software update allows for all many more types of notifications. My wife's Blaze currently displays Google Hangouts, Instagram and other apps (Android-based phone, FWIW) in addition to call and SMS notifications.

I have a Blaze for a few reasons. I was already in the Fitbit ecosystem with previous trackers of theirs, and I wanted to keep my data and be able to compare my progress with other friends I have with Fitbit trackers. I also have tried other trackers and smartwatches but either they were great but didn't integrate with my existing Fitbit data (surprisingly, a big deal), or not that great as fitness trackers so I'd wear it for notifcations and a Fitbit for my fitness tracking, which isn't ideal.

Call, text, and app notifications were the big missing piece for me with my previous Fitbit trackers. With the Charge HR, I could only get calls. The Surge could do only calls and text, but also had music control (which I find useful). I do a lot more aside from calls and texts that I'd like notifications for. I got the Blaze after they had released the update allowing for notifications pushed from any app that provides them. It doesn't have Cortana integration like the MS Band 2 did (which unfortunately would fall apart within months), but I can deal with that. I find it to be a good middle ground or compromise, right under the Surge. It is more casual and stylish than the Surge, and allows for more types of notifications. The only thing you don't get is GPS, but if you have your phone with you, it can link up with that for GPS tracking when out on walks or runs. So, in practice, it actually is more of a deal than the Surge is, in my opinion.

I really wish Microsoft would've fixed the strap issue and made a Band 3. There still isn't a comparable device on the market. I dread the day I'll have to regress to a Fitbit most likely. In the meantime after I got my second Band 2 I reinforced the 4 corners where it wants to crack with sections of 3/4" marine heat-shrink tubing. The extra material in conjunction with the glue inside that provides the watertight seal should keep it together.

It really bothers me that all but the most expensive Fitbits don't have onboard GPS, and even that lacks features the cheaper MS Band 2 has.

I got a Misfit Ray based on your review, and it's exactly what I wanted. So thank you for the review, plus another recommendation from me!

Its feature-set is fairly limited, but it requires no effort besides opening the smart phone app once a day (I believe on iOS you don't even need to open it.) I check in when I'm bored, and adjust the rest of my day based on how much I've walked already. The battery life seems to be about 4 months (not 6 like they claim), but that's still much better than most. That, combined with the waterproofing and the low profile have made it great for my use case.

My only issue is that the leather band strap wore down within 6 months. I switched to the paracord bracelet and I'm thinking of going back to the leather. The paracord looks nice, but it needs to be tightened a couple times a day. With the leather strap, I'd literally forget I was wearing it, and look at my wrist to check.

I don't know why you consider the tethered smartphone to be an "electronic boat anchor". For me, it's the number one feature of my Pebble 2. I get all my notifications on my wrist, and can see at a glance whether it's something I need to respond to immediately, when I get a chance, or not at all. Canned replies handle about 3/4 of my texts, and I can read and respond without taking my eyes off the road (I know some will get up in arms about this, but it's no more distracting than checking my speedometer or changing the radio station).

Plus, I can take advantage of Android's smart lock, while still keeping my phone reasonably secure. The Pebble apps provide all kinds of additional features (Notification Centre is brilliant, and works around so many Android app stupid notifications). The heart rate monitor, sleep tracking, etc are just bonuses for me.

It's part of a strange disease that afflicts half the tech world (the half that isn't Apple and doesn't make any money...) The major symptom of this disease is a bizarre belief that a SINGLE device has to fulfill ALL one's computing needs. There is absolutely no evidence for this belief; there is no historical precedent for it; it doesn't match human behavior in any other field.

Even so sufferers of this delusion continue, year after year, to fantasize that what's really holding their product back is the fact that it can't yet do everything. When they have finally built a microwave oven into a laptop, when your phone can also act as a frisbee, and when your watch has a built in projector, THAT's when the sales will truly take off...

So I'm approaching this from a different angle. Is there a small standalone device that can hold a decent amount of music (8gb+), does basic step tracking, and supports Bluetooth headphones? That's all I want from a jogging wearable since my 7 year old iPod nano died, but the best option I've found on amazon is...a slightly newer (but still old) iPod nano? Sony had some headphones that might of worked, but they were discontinued. I hate dragging my giant phone with me, and I'm paranoid about it breaking, but I guess that's what everyone does these days?

You could buy Samsung Gear IconX. That sounds like the best match to your particular needs. 9though I've no idea how stable they are in-ear for jogging).

How is the Apple iWatch a best in group product? It can't do sleep tracking, it has less than a days battery life. The FitBit Blaze has more essential movement tracking features than the iWatch, yet it is the worst... WTH

Sure the iWatch looks nice, but it's lipstick on a pig.

Apple Watch Series definitely has two days battery life (I would guess same is true of Series 1 but I don't own that.) Series 0 definitely had (with WatchOS 3) one day of battery life.

Apple Watch also has sleep tracking. Not built in (yet...) but there are at least two apps that do it. Sleep++ and AutoSleep.

I continue to have a hard time understanding the hate for the Blaze. Sure it isn't an apple watch but it does grab the more useful functions in a smart watch (notifications, calls, texts, calendar alerts) and manages to do so while keeping a 5-7 day battery life (in my experience). It looks a lot nicer than many other fitness trackers and I have yet to find many people who actually do much distance exercise without a phone for music, so the connected GPS is no big deal.

I love my Samsung Gear 2, but my biggest problem with it is the lack of a light sensor to dynamically change the brightness. It's either far too dim to see even in the shade outside or blindingly bright at night when you roll over.

Other than that, I love the thing. It's made me so much better about tracking my diet and activity. The Samsung Health app can track blood pressure, weight, blood sugar, and a lot more. It's a very neat device. It's also nice to be able to read texts and check phone numbers even if your phone is in a different room.

As for the battery life, I usually just charge mine when I'm in the shower or lounging. The charger is magnetic and very convenient.